Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

So, what have you been reading this May?

Once I finish my work day I plan to start on The Price of Spring by Daniel Abraham to complete the Long Price Quartet.

As for my progress through the land of Oz I'm on the last book Glinda of Oz, but I later found Little Wizard Stories of Oz on project Gutenberg so to be really complete I'll give that one a quick read too :)

Beyond the Clouds, tome 1 by Nicke

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Completed:

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Exhalation: Stories:
Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny; The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling; The Great Silence
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Authors:
Ted Chiang, Eoin Colfer, Jane Harper, Liu Cixin, Mary Beth Keane, Jay Kristoff, Rena Rossner, Brandon Sanderson, John Scalzi, Ruta Sepetys, Samantha Shannon, Elizabeth Strout, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Greg Van Eekhout, Jesmyn Ward

I finished reading Phantoms of Ruthaer by Jason McDonald as a beta-reader, Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, and The Last Emperox by John Scalzi right after it was released on April 14, 2020. I am reading City of Bones by Martha Wells. I plan to read Network Effect by Martha Wells when it is released on May 5, 2020.

I finished Sad Cypress and rated it 3.5 or 3.75/5 stars. Made me feel the urgent need to read more Agatha Christie, but alas... Anyway, a very fun and well written mystery.

Have now finished the first chapter of The Iron Heel by Jack London. Bought this several years ago and kept meaning to read it but never seemed quite to be able to focus on it when trying to read the first few pages. But now I'm more in the mood and enjoying it early on anyway.

My review of Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Greek Religion by Walter Burkert

I finished reading Zero Limit. It's a good read especially for those who prefer to keep their SF reasonably grounded in reality. A novel about the dangers of asteroid mining with some degree of political and social commentary.

I just finished James Islington's Licanius trilogy. Most excellent story.

https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-What-Lo...

Finished Baptism of Fire. It took longer to get going than the past Witcher books, but it ended with lots of action and some nice twists.

Finished The Price of Spring, the last book of the Long Price Quartet, when it started I was thinking it wouldn't be as good as the others but it got very good as it went along. Excellent series, glad someone nominated it as a group read otherwise I'd probably not have gotten around to reading it and what a pity that would have been!

Now something light and fun - The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. Technically this is starting a new series, but it is also technically continuing the original Percy Jackson series so it counts for my "Completing a series" theme for the year :) And I do plan to read all 5 books in The Heroes of Olympus.

I'm also using it for my BINGO slot of "In Modern World"...which still won't give me a BINGO. I'll be halfway through the board, wonder how long I can make it go before getting a BINGO?!

Listening to the Audible edition of Black Order by James Rollins, 3rd in the Sigma Force series.
Also reading the 7th Nero Wolfe book, Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout

I love Nero Wolfe and Archie. 😊

I have started reading Witchnapped in Westerham

I finished Witchnapped in Westerham. It was a light and easy read, as most cozy mysteries are. Nice to see an Aussie author and an Aussie protagonist. As is the case for all of the cozy mysteries I have read, the story is resolved in one book, but there is an overarching plot that is ongoing.

Finished The Lost Hero, Riordan is always perfect for lots of action and humour, and who knew, Boreas lives in the roof of Chateau Frontenac (Canadian references always make me smile). It was on the cover and I was looking at it thinking that it looked familiar but nah, couldn't be :)

Next is my yearly visit to the realm of Elantris with Cast in Deception by Michelle Sagara. Seems its going to be another Barani-centric tale. I have the admit the series is getting a bit repetitive, can Sagara herself is just writing till she gets bored, there isn't a particular goal (though I assume that when she does decided to wrap it up there will be some sort of ending/purpose) however I still like returning to this world. Sometimes repetition and familiarity can be kind of comforting, even if you've half forgotten what was in the previous 12 books :D

I'm also going to start the last Bleach―ブリーチ― 50 Burīchi 50 book I have, number 50. Sounds like a good number to get stuck at (at least till libraries open again) but in fact it's annoyingly 3 books into a new story arc so it would have been better to stop a couple books ago. Ah well, not like I knew what the shut down was going to be like when I last went to the library, this is the start of week 9! And to think I had only borrowed 23 out of 25 I was allowed (mostly Bleach), I could have squeezed in a couple more LOL

Anyway, what with me having started in on The Heroes of Olympus, The Mortal Instruments, The Dark Tower, and with RiddleMaster and Narnia among others waiting to be continued, it's not like I need to actually borrow more books!

Finished The Iron Heel by Jack London yesterday and rated 3.75/5 stars. Dystopian fiction from a socialist perspective. I liked it a lot and found the format worked well. Certainly still relevant today despite being written in 1908.

Now moving on to something very different, The Demons Within. Early days but liking it so far. Third book in the Grimluk Demon Hunter series.

Yay! Finished the last of the Oz books, whew.

Now my eReader is freed up for other things, in this case the novellas and short stories from the Powder Mage world so I can wrap up reading everything related to that series. First one up is Siege of Tilpur by Brian McClellan

I have been catching up on elderly first editions (thanks, Amazon and book lovers!) but a few modern ones and non-fic.

I may have to read the first two Harry Potter books again as I have just read this article about the Italian illustrator of the first editions.

https://www.comicsands.com/italian-ha...

My review of Just One Look:-

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished Barrayar with great pleasure, and moved immediately to The Warrior's Apprentice

Been reading The Gift of Evïr, my friend, R.E. Johnson just self-published it! So exciting!

Siege of Tilpur is done, very enjoyable 24 page return to the Powder Mage world. Now on to Forsworn by Brian McClellan. This one is a little longer at 50 pages

Andrea wrote: "Yay! Finished the last of the Oz books, whew.

Now my eReader is freed up for other things, in this case the novellas and short stories from the Powder Mage world so I can wrap up reading everythin..."

You read all of the Baum Oz books, but don't forget all of the Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz books...

Gary wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Yay! Finished the last of the Oz books, whew.

You read all of the Baum Oz books, but don't forget all of the Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz books..."

It's always a difficult decision for those trying to complete a series. Take Conan as an example - is it enough to just read the REH books? What about those written by de Camp? Or the comic series from Marvel and Dark Horse - some of which have been excellent stories. It's even worse for Cthulhu since Lovecraft openly shared his world, and a fair chunk of what is consider Cthulhu canon wasn't written by HPL.

Tony wrote: "Gary wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Yay! Finished the last of the Oz books, whew.

You read all of the Baum Oz books, but don't forget all of the Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz books..."

It's always a difficul..."

Yep, I found that list on Goodreads, brings the original 15 up to about 50 (if you don't count complete spinoffs like Dorothy Must Die or Wicked). I poked around, found a few on Project Gutenberg so grabbed those, but not sure if/when I will get to them. There's more on OpenLibrary too, but several were not to be found for free anywhere so I wouldn't be able to "complete" that set :)

I must admit I was tempted to switch my reading them from "completing series" to simply "Oz" since there are so many authors that have played around in that world, and in particular I really do want to read the Wicked series eventually. But I think that might be a bit of an Oz overdose (especially when unrelated series like the Dark Tower starts having Oz themed scenes...was a little Twilight Zonish...Oz is...everywhere...*spooky music*)

My review of If It Bleeds by Stephen King

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Andrea wrote: "Tony wrote: "Gary wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Yay! Finished the last of the Oz books, whew.

You read all of the Baum Oz books, but don't forget all of the Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz books..."

It's alwa..."
Years ago Del Rey released the Thompson books in oversized paperback editions. I think I have most, if not all of them.

I must admit I went from thinking it was just a movie, to finding out it was a book, to finding out it was a series of books, to finding out there is an extended series of books :) I wonder how many people get to what level of discovery!

Andrea wrote: "I must admit I went from thinking it was just a movie, to finding out it was a book, to finding out it was a series of books, to finding out there is an extended series of books :) I wonder how man..."

I can tell you that in my case, first I saw the movie, then my mom bought me the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz when I was a child (unfortunately without the original illustrations that add so much to these books), and I saw that our library had the whole set of Baum books around that time, too. So I guess you'd say that my point of discovery that it was a book and series was when my mom bought me that book. But that book was the only one that I actually read as a child, despite knowing of the others soon after. Recently I re-read it, and started reading more of them.

Some Icelandic SF flash fiction by a Goodreads friend.

The review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've read , which I really liked. I think this series gets better as it goes on.

popped on my radar as I was looking for news of The Edge. It was probably not the very best time to be reading something so dark, but it's gripping and very well written.

I am now back searching for that darn tower with .

Bryan wrote: "I am now back searching for that darn tower with "

I'm following along a bit behind you.

BTW Dark Tower readers, is it better to read The Wind Through the Keyhole as book 4.5 in the storyline or read The Wolves of Calla next? I heard that the short story "The Little Sisters of Eluria" had spoilers so best read last but wasn't so clear about Keyhole...

Either way, not ready to get back to the hunt for the Tower just yet. Finished reading Cast in Deception, not one of the stronger installments, it feels like a two-parter so it doesn't wrap everything up, not the first time that's happened in this series, but I plan to wait till next year to find out how it all sorts itself out. That way I'm reading at the same pace they are being written and won't run out :)

Next up is The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

My review of The Down Days by Ilze Hugo

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Faith wrote: "My review of The Down Days by Ilze Hugo

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

That's a teaser. You have your profile set to private so I can't see the review.

Jim wrote: "Faith wrote: "My review of The Down Days by Ilze Hugo

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

That's a teaser. You have you..."

I had some problems when adding the link. Try it now, it should work.

Finally, after several breaks to read other things, I have finished The Runes of the Earth. While Donaldson has made the book an easier read in the sense that the main characters aren't quite so unpleasant, he is now suffering badly from overwriting. The book is about 750 pages long and the story could have been told in half that.

Time to read a bit of Victorian era mystery - Raffles. This Penguin book is a reprint of Hornung's first volume of short stories about Raffles - The Amateur Cracksman. It was followed by another 18 short stories (in 2 volumes) and a novel - Mr Justice Raffles.

Oops, my bad. While Hornung did write a lot in the Victorian era, his Raffles stories were written in the Edwardian era.

Andrea wrote: "BTW Dark Tower readers, is it better to read The Wind Through the Keyhole as book 4.5 in the storyline or read The Wolves of Calla next? I heard that the short story "The Little Sisters of Eluria" had spoilers so best read last but wasn't so clear about Keyhole..."

I don't know either, so I'll read it after book 7 to be on the safe side. I've read "Little sisters" but that was years before I started reading the series proper, and by then I'd almost completely forgotten what happens.

My review of Jack by Connie Willis


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Barbara wrote: "I love Nero Wolfe and Archie. 😊"

They are consistently good reads..

My current reads:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot #1

King Javan's Year by Katherine Kurtz

Battle Mask by Don Pendleton

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan

Finished Forsworn (where we get to learn about Erika who is already dead by the time the Powder Mage series starts) and now I'm starting on Servant of the Crown. Seems each novella doubles, this one is over 100 pages. Definitely not complaining!

Gary wrote: "My current reads:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot #1

[bookcover:King Javan's Y..."

Thanks for this share, Gary .
I surely read that Agatha Christie, but ages ago...& I never mind rereading her work.
I just reread All Systems Red as I am preparing for Ms Wells' latest about to be published.
And I've read all of the Wheel of Time series except for Jordon's last contribution; nor have I read the final books cowritten by Sanderson. I began the last of Jordon's books, but somehow the telling simply did not call me in as the others did.
I am unfamiliar with Don Pendleton .. do tell!
I'll look for your review of it.
Of Kurtz, I have heard much. Perhaps I shall give her a go this summer.
Thanks again! I appreciate how you added the actual links to these.
Best to you

Recently finished Hollow Kingdom - a post-apocalyptic book narrated mostly by a very vulgar crow
And now I’m on The outside - ownvoices novel that is part lovecraft a lot of sci-fi with AI ‘gods’ that rule with metallic fists

I finished The Warrior's Apprentice and I am eagerly plunging into the next book, The Vor Game.

Finished The Son of Neptune, was fun and had even more Canadian content (hey, most powerful demigod = a Canadian, hah!) and as usual there were just some perfect one-liners I had to read to whoever was passing by at the time.

Switching to a steampunk series I started with three free downloads off of Goodreads (no longer free now) but I really enjoyed so I went and bought physical copies of the rest of the series. Been too long since I got back to them so starting on number 4 - Missing by Emily Thompson

I finished Raffles. This edition has a 50+ page introduction, which was quite interesting, and is extensively annotated - the notes for the 9 stories add about 40 pages at the end of the book and cover historical notes, references to real people and places and provide explanations for readers who may not be familiar with British idioms of the period.

Janet wrote: "Gary wrote: "My current reads:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot #1

[bookcover:K..."
The Mack Bolan aka The Executioner series started the whole male action sub-genre. Pendleton eventually sold the rights to Harlequin, which started a new label, Gold Eagle, which is still churning out Bolan books. The character was the inspiration for Marvel Comic's The Punisher.

On the Kurtz books, read them in publication order.